Friday, January 06, 2012

Clad in protective ice-cooled jumpsuits, explorers make their way through the Cave of Crystals in Mexico.
Carsten Peter / Speleoresearch & Films

Images of the Day, part 2... Just thought I'd share more photos that I stumbled upon in that magazine where I learned about blue holes last week. Most definitely, that must have been a National Geographic publication I took a look at, since these pics—taken inside Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals—are featured on Nat Geo's website. Click on that last link to read the full article on this natural wonder. I'll just paraphrase by saying that the Cave of Crystals is located below the Chihuahuan Desert. Inside this amazing labyrinth is (you guessed it) a multitude of giant crystals that are at most 600,000 years-old. The cavern that these mineral formations are in is located about a mile or so above an incursion of magma, causing this lair to have a nice balmy temperature of...112 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh, and 90 to 100 percent humidity. I'll make a facetious note that Bruce Wayne would have never thought about becoming Batman if the cave underneath his mansion had this kind of extreme conditions.

I would point out that I would totally want to visit the Cave of Crystals someday...but as long as that little conflict known as the drug war continues in Mexico, I have no intention to drive south of the border and getting kidnapped in my quest to visit a location that completely resembles Superman's Fortress of Solitude (that's my last comic book reference for this entry). Why couldn't this place be located in Utah instead? Better to run into a group of spelunking Mormons than cocaine smugglers...

Clad in a protective ice-cooled jumpsuit, a researcher rappels his way into the Cave of Crystals...whose interior can get as hot as 112°F.
Carsten Peter / Speleoresearch & Films

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